I have been using,”multiple streams of income,” as my mantra during this rough patch. Being an interior designer easily translates into designing other things as well. I have been designing jewelry that is customized in price and style for different stores. I also opened an Etsy shop for my jewelry and for vintage items that I find in my treasure hunting for clients.I am bringing in an extra $1500-$3000 a month, and I am having fun! My first passion is always going to be interior design, and I am thankful for the clients I have!
However, until we get another reset in valuations (I’m calculating a 40% to 50% correction is justified ), I’ve moved largely to the sidelines. Beginning in July 2013, I began slowly reducing equity exposure and am now sitting firm at 40% with the balance in various forms of 5 yr cd’s and short duration bonds. This is down from over 60% when I ramped up to take advantage of the March 2009 lows.
This is mostly passive once you have it all set up, but it does take a lot of work at the beginning. Real estate investing also requires occasional maintenance. Currently, we invest in a couple of rental properties and earn about $500 profit from each per month. You can read more about my rental properties at MoneySmartLife.com: How and Why I Became a Landlord.

A few people who started their own YouTube channel when the video-sharing site was in its nascent stage are now millionaires. Now that YouTube has become immensely popular with hordes of people running their own channels, making a million dollars is considerably more difficult, but earning a respectable sum of money is still possible. As always, you'll need to find a niche that isn't yet saturated and focus on making engaging videos around it. Once you start raking up views and subscriptions, the money will start flowing in with minimum effort on your part.

How To Engineer Your Layoff – In 2012, it took me four months of absolute focus and two years of data to publish my first e-book about helping people negotiate a severance. The book went through over 30 revisions by four people. Then I updated the book for 2018 with 50 more pages (150 pages total) using more successful case studies and highlighting more strategies for those who want to break free with money in their pocket.

I’m looking at accepting a professor job. It’ll be more than a 50% pay cut. But I’ll have the same life you describe – endless summers and an entire month every winter to ski. I’m thinking in the end, eventually, I might even end up wealthier in more ways than one. Happy people tend to be the most successful. I have no desire to diversify. Dividend stocks allude me. CDs seem like a good choice for older people, but I have time on my hands and real estate knowledge, so I’m sticking with what I know, despite the fact that most people will tell me it is foolish and I should diversify.
Logan is a CPA with a Masters Degree in Taxation from the University of Southern California. He has been featured in publications such as Debt.com. He has nearly 10 years of public accounting experience, including 5 with professional services firm Ernst & Young where he consulted with multinational companies and high net worth individuals on their tax situations. He launched Money Done Right in 2017 to communicate modern ideas on earning, saving, and investing money.
Great ideas here, and thanks for the link! I’m definitely interested in learning about using an Ebay store, although I’ve heard they are not as effective as they used to be. One interesting problem that arises though is with online work, that is, work performed via the internet. If one does not reside in one’s home country while doing it it might be considered illegal (so check on all those tax implications).
But when so many turn down leasing one and one-half acre for one Wind Turbine for each 80 acres, that lease certainly does not materially affect the rest of the Farm or Ranch grazing pasture and the lease pays much more than the farm crow or grazing pasture lease, just because some lawyer said the lease was too long: 30 years plus 30 year option = 60 years, and the wind turbine company has selling production/electricity contracts for the next 150 years – which is needed to obtain financing!
Mike, I don’t consider the income from FS to be passive, as I’m spending time commenting to you right now. But since 75% of my traffic comes from search, the most traffic I would probably lose is 25% for probably a year. And then my search word rankings would probably slowly fade given frequency of posting new content is one of the search algo variables.
After employment, I think that most individuals gain income diversification through investing. It is important to look at why we invest: because at some point we plan on using this money for something. For most, it is saving for retirement, and the investing is done through vehicles, such as a 401(k) or IRA. But investing is not just about stashing money away for a rainy day – that is what an emergency fund is for. Investing is about having enough capital to generate income.
I think more and more people are recognizing the advantages of having multiple sources of income, thanks to the Great Recession. It was a real wake-up call to many good workers who lost jobs not because of poor performance but due to restructuring and cost-savings. They never considered themselves to be vulnerable and they were. We do have multiple streams of income and a fully-funded emergency fund, which has helped my family weather the ups and down life has brought us, including job loss.

If you are expert in some area, you can always give your consultancy service to smaller businesses who cant hire big companies. When we were brainstorming with a client of ours to generate second line of income, he identified that he has some great knowledge in the area of terrace gardening. He could see that he can help families with large enough terrace to setup their own balcony garden and earn some fees over weekends or extra time.

At age 55, I own high-end rental properties (near the beach) and commercial buildings servicing the medical industry. I was widely criticized during my career for not living up to my income; that is, buying big homes with many fancy cars. I married a great woman who understood that saving and investing today meant a better lifestyle and more freedom tomorrow. Our passive income is half of my active income from sales, but my net worth has increased substantially. We are both happier and healthier than we were in the high-stress pressure cooker of franchise sales. The naysayers have become converts to the concept of passive income, but they have locked themselves into a “big hat, no cattle” lifestyle. It has been a great ride!
Thirst for income is likely to continue with interest rates expected to stay low, keeping government bond yields low for longer and their valuations unattractive. Looking past bonds, the prices of high-dividend shares are historically high, which limits the likelihood that their dividends will rise markedly from here. Striving too high for an income target tends to push your portfolio further out on the risk spectrum.